Welcome to Ponderfodder! If you haven't checked out our About page yet, to learn about this site's purpose, we recommend you do so now.
We hope you'll be able to get the hang of how to use this site just by browsing around and clicking on available options. However in case you get stuck, or aren't sure about something, we've provided a complete explanation of the site's functions here.
Unregistered Users
As an unregistered user, you can read any of the posts made on this site. That includes regular content, or user comments about the content.
You can also monitor content on this site via RSS. For more information about feed links, please see RSS Feeds.
Finally, you can search the site and dig for information in three ways:
- Use the navigation menu at the top of each page to browse among different types of content. (For an explanation of what you’ll find on Ponderfodder, see the “Types of Content” section below.)
- Type your keyword into the search box at the top of each page and click “Search.”
- Click on a subject tag. For example, if you're reading a post tagged “nanotechology” and you click on that tag, you’ll find other posts about nanotechnology.
Registered Users
In order to post content or comments on this site, you must register. You can do so here.
Once you've registered, you can post content on Ponderfodder by clicking on the post content on PoFo link located in the left sidebar box.
You can comment on content (your own or someone else’s) by either clicking on the “Add New Comment” link under the abbreviated front page version of the content or by viewing the content and then scrolling down to and filling in the “Post New Comment” form.
You can also search the site and subscribe to RSS feeds as described in the “Unregistered Users” section above.
Types of Content
There are seven types of content on this site. Here's a brief explanation of each:
Ask
You can use this area to ask fellow PoFo users your questions. Examples are:
“Why do mosquitos frequently bite my wife, but hardly ever touch me? In other words, what makes one person more attractive to mosquitos than another?”
“From time to time I will come across a concept or phrase (or something else) that is completely new to me. Very shortly after that, I see it everywhere – on the news, on a random TV show, in a book. I've heard other people describe this as well. Is there a name for this phenomenon? Is there an explanation?”
Please note that the “Ask” section is designed to help you learn about something or to satisfy your intellectual curiosity. It should not be used to solicit advice on personal matters. Users should not use the forum to get other PoFo readers to do their homework for them.
Book/Media Club
Here, users can post reviews of books, videos, software and other media.
Ponderfodder exists to promote discussion and debate about ideas, discoveries and theories, with a heavy emphasis on science and technology. Therefore, media that introduce new ideas or summarize the state-of-the-art are good candidates for posted reviews; so are media that provide additional in-depth knowledge on a posted topic.
So for example, appropriate books might include:
- The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century
- Decoding the Universe
- How the Scots Invented the Modern World
- Ideas : A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud
- Beyond: Visions of the Interplanetary Probes
- Journey to the Ants
Inappropriate material would be works like:
- Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 2006
- A Time to Kill
- The Hairy Bikers Cookbook
- Confessions of an Heiress: A Tongue-in-chic Peek Behind the Pose
We think you get the idea.
Events
This section is for posting upcoming events that might be of interest to other Ponderfodder users. Examples include:
- The date that Mars and Earth will be closest
- The date of a widely anticipated book launch
- The dates and location of an upcoming academic conference
- The deadline for submissions to a journal
- The date, time and location of a lecture or presentation
As you can see Ponderfodder encourages the inclusion of local, regional, national, international and even universal events.
Glossary
This section is to provide a quick, in-house reference where users can look up terms they might not be familiar with. We encourage all users to post an entry here now and then. Example terms might include: an explanation of what an assay is, what constitutes an ad hominem attack, a definition of dendrochronology and so on. If the Ponderfodder community develops its own in-jokes, acronyms and so on, definitions/explanations of these should also be included in the glossary.
When posting elsewhere on the Ponderfodder site, you can to link to glossary entries internally by using dfn html tags.
News/Sites
In this area, you can post links to news items, essays and editorials, as well as sites that would be of interest to other PoFo users. An example of a news story would be a link to an article on NewScientist.com entitled “Chemotherapy may help human bird flu victims.” An interesting site to post might be www.connotea.org, a free online reference management service. Please do a thorough search, however, to avoid duplicating previous posts.
Participate
Use this section to post a link, or contact information about a project, study, expedition, experiment etc., that members of the general public can participate in. The idea is to spread the word about ways that average citizens anywhere in the world can get involved in the quest for knowledge.
You might post a link to a site that allows users to contribute computer time to a project (ie., like Seti@Home or more recently, the BBC Climate Change study), a call for volunteers for a study, a link to a survey which is soliciting input for a study, or a call for volunteers to participate in an archeological dig.
Speculate
This section is for 1-2 paragraph mini-essays, supported by links to relevant web sites, papers, authorities etc.
The essay can be persuasive or expository; it should definitely be well-formed and thought out before being posted here. The idea is to bring interesting and perhaps otherwise obscure reference sources to the attention of the community and to generate a wide ranging discussion or debate on the matter.
Two examples: 1) Perhaps you have recently come to the conclusion that nitrogen compounds in the environment pose a greater and lesser known threat to our future than carbon dioxide emissions. You post 1-2 paragraphs stating as much, providing links to an explanation of the nitrogen cascade, 2-3 recent studies on the matter, links to opinions on the implications of the problem etc.
2) You are passionate about Chinese literature, and wish to share your discovery that certain genres are currently flourishing in mainland China. You post a few paragraphs that discuss the history of literature in China, referring readers to some online translations of the great classics, refer to studies that suggest what the recent trends are, and provide a few additional links so that readers can learn about the hottest new Chinese authors.
Inappropriate Content
We want this to be a stimulating, interesting and thriving community. Thus we reserve the right to delete content that is inconsistent with that goal. Inappropriate content might include, but not be limited to: link/comment spam; self-links where they are not relevant to the discussion at hand; trolling; abuse of, or personal attacks on other users; content not in keeping with the general theme and purpose of the site. Users who persist in posting inappropriate content may be banned from the site.
If you encounter a problem with the site, or have any questions or comments, please use the contact form to get in touch with the site administrators.